"I was far away, killing for love..." (Ko Van Den Bosch)

 

The piece “My private Odyssey” is a co-production of the choreographers Guy Weizman and Roni Haver, the German company Tanzmainz and the composer David Dramm, the composer and pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, the violinist Monica Germino and the flutist Anne La Berge.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

For their piece “My private Odyssey” the two choreographers Guy Weizman and Roni Haver were inspired by the poet Homer, who wrote about the Greek hero Odysseus. Odysseus was the king of the island Ithaca when he had to go to the Trojan War. Unfortunately he came back to his homeland after long 20 years. This journey of Odysseus was used by the choreographers as a metaphor for human’s life in generally, but especially for the life or journey of artists. What does it mean to be always on the way or what does it mean to come back home after spending a long time somewhere else?

On January the 22nd, 2015 the big stage of the Schouwburg in Utrecht was constructed quite extraordinary. There were no alleys, curtains or a back plane, therefore the stage seemed to be really open and big. When the audience entered the theater the front curtains were already opened and a flutist was playing live with support of replayed music. By constructing a complex setting of the stage and by using special light effects it was firstly hard to see that all the dancers as well as the musicians were already somewhere on the stage.

 

 

 

 

The space in total was filled with three female dancers, seven male dancers and three musicians, which were all dressed up in quite conspicuous and extensive red clothes. Among other things the color red signifies in psychology emotions, strong enragements and oppositions. That’s why it seemed like the choreographers wanted to emphasize by using this color doubts, obstructions, desire, courage, comeback and hope.

 

 

 

 

 

These connotative words were also confirmed by the strong facial expressions and the movements of the dancers. The piece was divided in group parts, duets, partnering and short solos. The movements were really precise and often minimalistic. Temporary the quality of the movements was fluently, but then sometimes also quite staccato and during partnering parts manipulative.

At more than just one time in the piece the dancers were leaving the stage to be in the space of the audience. That’s why the focus of the audience was not the whole time straight to the stage. One time the dancers also invited the audience to scream at certain points. So the choreographers changed the usual course of a performance. This action gave the impression that the choreographers wanted to involve the audience and it also seemed like they wanted to clarify - by passing the boarders to the audience - that the theme of “My private Odyssey” is everyone’s business.

It's everyone's business because every human can connect something with the topic coming home after a time of absence. Of course for everyone coming back home means something else, because everyone also defines home diffrently. On the stage the dancers showed their personal experience and their own journey. In my view I really could identify with the dancers and their feelings.
 
Before January 22nd, 2015 I didn’t see or know anything about the choreographers Guy Weizman and Roni Haver and the German company Tanzmainz. That’s why I didn’t have any prejudices. But after I saw “My Private Odyssey” I was really positive surprised and I quite enjoyed seeing this piece. On the one hand I just loved to see the dancers moving. In my opinion they were really strong in their complex movements as well as in their expressions. On the other hand I was also really fascinated of the whole staging with the lights and the stage settings. But I also have to say that it was too much going on for just seeing this piece once. That’s why I would like to go a second time in “My private Odyssey” and I can just recommend to other people to watch this quite convincing and strong piece.  

 

See more: http://www.clubguyandroni.nl/en/

 

 

 



Choreography: Guy Weizman and Roni Haver

Dance: the German company Tanzmainz
Music Composition: David Dramm and Tomoko Mukaiyama

Music: Anne La Berge (flutist), Tomoko Mukaiyama (pianist and singer), Monica Germino (violinist)

Text: Ko Van Den Bosch 

Costumes: Slavna Martninovic

Light: Will Frikken  

Johanna Schweer

A Performance About Love by Elisabeth Lambeck

The performance that I choose it's a solo. This solo called "Para Ti Para Mim" in English, For You For Me, was created and interpreted by Elisabeth Lambeck a choreographer, dancer and teacher, This performance give rise in Teatro Campo Alegre in Portugal in September of 2014 and I will pay again a ticket to see this performance again, for sure.

Something that I found really curious, defferent and true was the fact than when the audience entered in the space, the dancer was already on stage. While she stretch, se received the audience with a smile, looking eye to eye for each person, something that make me feel very welcome. Her costumes were clothes from the daily life, normal costumes, and this makes the performance even more casual.

In this solo, the interpret showed having an artistic vein very versatile, because she dance, she talk and she sing. This junction of elements make a lot of sense and i think that wasn't uninteresting or to much things at the same time.

"A lot of it is to do with delicacy, with small gestures and still being able to punch..." says Ohad Naharin.

This sentence that Ohad Naharin says when describe Gaga Technique it's a perfect sentence to qualify the movements of the dancer. A personal delicacy, with an inner strength and the junction of gestures that were repeated during the choreography are characteristics that follow the movement of the dancer. The reason that I choose this phrase from Ohad Naharin it's because the movements of the interpret are purely inspired in Gaga Technique. This technique was develop by Ohad Naharin with Batsheva Dnce Company.

During the performance, the interpret talks about his past loves and, describe the story that she lived with each lover. Because it's a creation and a solo I think the artist puts her personal and intimate side in the choreography. In my opinion when we make our own solo we don't need to put something intimate there, but the creative take this option and it was very visible because the words are more clear than movements.

Her music choice goes from Vitor Joaquim a portuguese musician of eletronic music, intil a extensive range of love songs like "I will always love you"- Whitney Houston; "Together forever"- Rick Astley and "Love me tender" - Elvis Presley, music that she makes her own interpretation.


I think Love it's the best word to describe this performance. Resuming, the artist received us with love and gave us love during the solo, because a lot of times it's what we lack in our daily life, LOVE!!!!


http://vimeo.com/79472295

Magda Almeida

Fasttrack Openpodium

Look into the mirror 

Choreographer and dancer: Annebel Kattouw 

Music: Electric Candyman (feat. Thom York) - by Flying Lotus 

Viewed: monday 26 January 2015 Arnhem

Rijn IJssel in Arnhem offers since September 2011 in collaboration with ArtEZ an accelerated two -year program. The two year program is to train young dancers to be ready for auditions or a dance academy. During this program the students will be offered an internship of 8 weeks at the ArtEZ dance department of they're choice. These 8 weeks, depending on the solo they present to the jury, will determine if the students are accepted for the ArtEZ program next year . 

Every year the Fasttrack students are allowed to organize an Openpodium where they can try out they're solo that they would like to present to ArtEZ as their audition.  

This year 5 students showed they're solo at the Openpodium. Because of her inspiring pieces I choose to write a review about the solo of Annebel Kattouw performing 'Look into the mirror'. 

Photo: Juliet Zoeten

The dancer stares down in front of her while the music starts playing. Very gentle she moves her fingers as the music keeps building up and forms into a sort of house music. The dancer starts to use more of her arms and feet as if she is collecting her balance, but still standing on the same place. The movement starts to get more intense and she now starts using her head too, doing some kind of whip movement. By now the music has already taken me as an audience into the atmosphere of her fighting with her inner self.  

Photo: Juliet Zoeten

Just this beginning I find a perfect build up for this piece. Because it starts very peacefully and gradually builds up a certain tension that will take you as an audience along in her journey. This made me a part of this piece itself because, I already was feeling the battle she was is in. 

Her way of moving was so real for me and the way she build up her solo felt very natural. 

When the music reaches a climax, the dancer releases an explosive floorwork phrase using the floor very nicely. Her movements where like fire spreading in a field, very quick and affective. Her way of using the floor was very economic, there was no sound of her bumping into the floor nor did it seem like she had troubles connecting the movements. 

A beautiful performance, a spectacle that I did not expect from a tall dancer. 

I was always told that the combination of tallness and speed is not possible but the performance this dancer gave, proved that theory wrong. 

Photo: Juliet Zoeten

Another thing that was remarkable was that instead of using the whole stage, the dancer choose to stay a lot on the right side and also down stage. 

It was a interesting choice she made but I thought it was a shame to be that close to the front because I was sitting in the back on the left and couldn’t see the entire piece. By not seeing every thing I felt left out. Especially after being taken away in the beginning I thought it was a shame not to be part of everything that was taking place. 

In the future I would advice this dancer to bare in mind that not every angle of the stage is clear for everyone to see. It would be a shame not to let everyone see the work you would like to share. Still I found it a evening well spend and I thank you Annebel Kattouw for this amazing experience. 

Norval Mongen

POST IS \ ADI PAZ

Monday, 29 December 2014, 20:30

Klipa Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel

Choreography: Adi Paz                     

Dancer:  Adaya Berkovitz

Music: composer: Hilit Rozental     Singer: Stela Gotshtain

Lighting: Yanir Liberman

Genre: Dance Theater.

 

Adi Paz is an Israeli actress, maker\choreographer and dancer. At her new piece post it, she brings to light one of the difficult issues of the society, which is sexual harassment. Through her piece, she is trying to touch on this sensitive subject, with focusing on the world of images of post sexual trauma. 

 

As they present it, stories about sexual harassment are occurred just under our noses. In this sense, a lot of people and especially women are living in their post trauma way of living. Through this performance, she created a sensitive story that rising questions that we all should ask ourselves. For example, who are we tends to blame in those situations, and way? Is there something that can actually have been done in order to avoid from those cases.

 

The young talented dancer Adaya Berkovits, performed a complex character which was developing through the piece. Dressed with short jeans and blue shirt, her childish pink underwear is peeking out, she is playing on the fine line between being a girl and a woman. This duality that she brings through her character is quit confusing – on the one hand, she is becoming more sexual and flirting with the audience, and on the other, she seems to be like a young girl. Within 40 min performance, Adaya succeeded to fascinate her audience with strong charisma, exploding energy, playfulness and honesty.

   

In my opinion, the most powerful part of the performance was at the end. In some moment, she went toward the audience, and slowly she started to travel between us. Crossing between the audience, her gaze starring into the space, with no clear direction and she is looking but not seeing. At once, we could all feel the compassion and the wish to help her, supporting her physically when she is about to fall.

 

However, the choreography itself, together with music, was unbalanced with the strong presence of the dancer. It created some drops in the intensity and wasn't developed enough in order to complete the performance into one whole thing.

 

In spite of it, post it is an intimate and touching performance which deals with a sensitive subject that should be talked more. Adi touches in those areas that we usually trying to avoid from deal with.

LINK TO THE ADI PAZ FACEBOOK PAGE:

https://www.facebook.com/AdiPazDanceTheater/photos_stream?tab=photos_albums

 

VIDEOS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuW-SOpkb40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqHF0hh84Y4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZ8nyEe3PY

 


written by: Keren Ben-Shachar